• DOI:10.1177/000306517202000304
• Corpus ID: 45301787

The Stork Fable—Some Psychodynamic Considerations

@article{Margolis1972TheSF,
  title={The Stork Fable—Some Psychodynamic Considerations},
  author={Marvin S. Margolis and Peter Parker},
  journal={Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association},
  year={1972},
  volume={20},
  pages={494 - 511}
}

• M. Margolis, P. Parker
• Published 1 July 1972
• Psychology
• Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

NE OF THE niosr URGENT QUESTIOSS that preoccupy little children is the enigma of where babies come from. Freud (1907) 0 stated that the origin of babies “is the oldest and most burning question that confronts immature humanity” (p. 135). T h e stork fable has long served as an explanation for this riddle in the FVestern FVorld. For centuries, children have been told by their parents that their new brother or sister was brought by the stork. Because of the revolutionary changes in child-rearing practices in the past generation, and especially with the franker and biologically more correct explanations of conception and birth given to children, the use of the stork fable has been gradually declining. Yet it is still almost universally known at all levels of our culture. Our attachment to this fanciful notion is attested to by the widespread use of the symbol of the stork on commercial enterprises (diaper services and the like), in baby announcements, and in cartoons-particularly at the time of the new year. There must be a variety of reasons for both the widespread diffusion and persistence of this myth. Freud made several references to the stork fable which hint at the significance of this stmy. He made several comments about a child’s use of the stork fable in the case of Little Hans (1909). In his study of Leonard0 (1910) he referred to, “. . . the fable of the stork with its wealth of mythological meaning” (pp. 78-79), and in